UN-Love You
by Rinnesuke
Summary: Writing challenge for dysfunctional pairings. Masamune/Shizuku.
1. 01: You were right about me

**01/You were right about me.**

_Guess I'll take a different way home today,_ Masamune thought as he turned a random corner.

He entered a cozy little district that he didn't recognize. Stone paved road. Sweet little cafes. Vintage watch shop. Ah, a bookstore. Maybe he'd stop by another time. Masamune glanced up, and was greeted by the bright blue sky decorated with fluffy clouds. Quite a nice little corner he had found today. Masamune mentally bookmarked the location before orientating himself in the direction of his house.

Just as he was about to turn away, a streak of orange-brown hair caught his eye. Automatically, his footsteps stopped and his body betrayed him by searching out that hair colour again. There she was.

Shizuku, in all her average glory, sitting at the counter of a fast food restaurant with someone else. She didn't appear to be listening; her eyes fixed at something outside the glass window. Lips held around her straw but not drinking. Head balanced daintily in her palm. It was Shizuku.

Masamune paused. _Ah, I see,_ he thought. _You were right about me. Life_ is _boring to me. At least..._

_Life without you._


	2. 02: I was wrong about you

**02/I was wrong about you.**

Our eyes locked, my fire-ember orange with his cold-coffee brown. We continued in this childish staring competition, both waiting for the other to voice out something. Finally, I broke it with a slight eye roll. A muffled scoff caught my ear.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

Masamune picked up his backpack, "Reading. You?"

"Studying," I shoved my books in mine.

A smile tugged at the corners of his lips, "Figures."

We walked in sync towards the library's exit, silent. I hadn't seen Masamune since... elementary maybe? I never gave his whereabouts much thought but he probably doesn't live in the same area I do. I never saw him around until now. Meaning... he moved? Was it a parent's work or a parent's relationship, I wonder? Whatever it was, he sure hasn't changed much. Masamune's still the same mellow old guy.

I took a glance at the weather. It was pouring cats and dogs. Unwillingly, a comment slipped out: "Ah... Don't have an umbrella."

Rain just had to choose the time right after my umbrella broke to fall. I hadn't had time to buy a new one. A plastic object hit my hand. My gaze flickered down. A navy blue umbrella? I followed the hand holding it up to its owner. Once again, our eyes locked quietly. Masamune's blank look stared unnervingly down at me.

"Take it."

I took the umbrella. As Masamune calmly walked out in to the rain, completely neutral to the salty water soaking through his clothing and backpack, I stared after him. _I was wrong about you, after all. You do have feelings. You do care._


	3. 03: This cancels out the hurt

**03/This cancels out the hurt.**

_It's okay. I'm okay._

_Next time, alright? She'll be here next time._

_I understand. Mother's busy. She knows my results and she's proud of me for them._

_Father was here, too, wasn't he? Wasn't that good enough?_

Shizuku took a huge mouthful of air in. Her fingers scrunched up her bangs, pulled them lower over her eyes. Heat pricked at the back of eyeballs but before the shameful tears could form, she forced them back. _Walk. I'll just walk it off,_ Shizuku informed herself. Her feet grudgingly moved forward, clicking a steady rhythm on the concrete pavement.

Left, right, left, right, left, right.

_It_ wasn't_ enough again,_ croaked the small, dark voice at the back of her mind. It betrayed her, destroying all her motivational talk in one go. Hot, salty tears dripped two smooth lines down her flushed cheeks. Physical evidence of her emotional state. Shizuku felt stupid, getting all worked up over such a small matter. It just wasn't practical to expect her mother to free up her schedule for Shizuku's prize presentation. It wasn't like her prize presentation was a big one either. Not logical, and Shizuku knew it. Yet, still she wept.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

The last repetition was abruptly punctured by a loud crunch. Shizuku jolted, startled. Her doe-like eyes blinked at the scene presented before her. The crunch had been the sound of knuckles violently meeting the brick wall. The owner of that fist would be the bafflingly tall male standing before it. His back was hunched up angrily, and his breath came in short gasps.

Shizuku recognized him. Her bottom lip quivered.

"M-Masamune?"

The male turned to face her. His eyes shocked her. A darkened shade of brown, holding a swirling abyss of negative emotions. Anger, despair, guilt, pain... Ah, yes, _pain_. There it was, shining right back at her through all the rest of the feelings there. It stood out, jumping and screeching at her through those eyes. Pain was an emotion she understand. An emotion that was being reflected right back at her.

"Shizuku..."

Masamune took one step towards her. That was all they needed before they were standing so breath-takingly close that the toes of their shoes almost met. _Kiss me,_ her brain elected to fill the blank in her thoughts with this. Perhaps she had suddenly gained the power of telepathy for this wish was quickly fufilled. Shizuku's hand was captured by Masamune's larger one, followed by her lips.


	4. 04: I need to want you

**04/I need to want you.**

_Oops._ Masamune sat up a little straighter. He caught himself dozing off in class, thinking about Shizuku. Again.

He did a fleeting surveillance of the class to make sure no one noticed his period of non-attention. The teacher droned on, tapping the white board a few times to emphasize the point. He proceeded to write out a bit more of an elaboration. Masamune's classmates seemed entranced by whatever material they were teaching right now. They dilligently took down. Masamune judged that it was safe territory, and allowed his consciousness to leave once again.

_"Saga-kun."_

_Masamune cracked open one eye. The blurry image of one of his classmates entered his vision. She was shooting him a very pointed look. One arm was secured around a few bound books and the other was perched on her hip. "Wake up, Saga-kun," she called out._

_Deciding it would be easier to get it over with, Masamune reluctantly pulled himself up from the comfortable grass bed. A yawn stretched his mouth open blatantly wide. His hand reached lazily to cover it up. His classmate (what was her name again?) dropped the books gently in to his lap._

_In a monotonous voice, the girl said, "We're on duty today. The teacher gave us some administrative stuff to sort out. I've done my part so you just need to do these. Please pass them back to the teacher when you're done."_

_All instructions delivered and everything accounted for, the girl pivoted on her foot and walked off. Masamune gaped a little, his sleepy brain still processing her words. Man, what a pain. He totally forgot he was on duty. Talking about that, who was that girl again? So rare to see an elementary school kid spout words like 'administrative'._

_"Hm..."_

The bell rung with a high-pitched thrill. Groaning softly, Masamune awoke from his memory-dream. He just can't stop thinking about Shizuku, can he? Well, it wasn't a bad thing per se. Shizuku kept his mind off the things that his mind tended to wander to when he had nothing to think about. Shizuku was a good topic too. Adorable, smart, apathetic. Innocent. At times, Masamune almost _needed_ to think about Shizuku, if just enough to keep himself in the light.


	5. 05: You can be like me

**05/You can be like me.**

"If it's you... You can do it, Masamune." Shizuku pinned him with those words, "You can be like me."

Masamune's eyes fluttered close in resignation. "What are you saying?" Something that almost became a laugh choked out of him.

Shizuku did not answer. Instead, she hooked her backpack on the handrail and flopped down next to him. The two sat there on the stone step wordlessly. The air was filled simply with nature's voice: birds chirping, trees rustling, waves crashing. His eyes followed her fingertip as it traced out the indefinite shape of a constellation. Her phone beeped, signalling a message received. Shizuku showed no sign of having heard it. Masamune looked away.

"You can do it, Masamune. You can be like me," she repeated.

Masamune replied seriously, "No, I can't. Shizuku is bright... Too bright, like the sun. Pure and unblemished, only shining forth and clearing its path to the future." His voice lowered to a whisper, "I'm different."

She shot him a look that said, _what bullshit. I'm nothing like that._ But she was, Masamune replied silently. Out loud, Shizuku said nothing in return but a quiet assurance.

"You can."

Masamune is beautiful. He's like a meteor. A burning ball of energy that streaks through the galaxy. He's so strong and so bright that the things around sometimes self-destruct. He blames himself for them but they're not his fault. Masamune shines even more with all his scars, because he experienced the world's hurt and survived.

With a look ridden with affection and a heart swallowed by warmth, Shizuku interwines her fingers with Masamune's.


End file.
